The Message
by Dodger Gilmore
Summary: You know the angry message Rory left on Jess´s answering machine in FaceOff? What if he had actually listened to it? Would things have played out differently? Read and find out!


**A/N **This got inspired by some talking at the lit thread over at s-h a while ago about if Jess did or did not respect Rory's wish that he wouldn't listen to her angry message at his answering machine after he got the Distiller tickets. There were many different opinions and since it never got cleared up on the show it was sort of a mystery. Now I suddenly started thinking more about that after seeing the episode (Face-Off) and well, I got some ideas for this fic. So here you go. This takes place after Rory and Jess had been to the Distillers concert and Jess gets home to find…

**The Message**

"What the hell is wrong with you?" was the first thing Jess heard as he entered the apartment that night.

He just stared dumbly at his uncle, having no idea what he had done to deserve such a warm welcome.

"You need to treat her right!" Luke yelled again.

"Who are you – Rory?" he asked, confused.

"Yes, Rory, who else!"

"What about her?" Jess asked, getting a bit upset too, but mostly puzzled.

Luke took a deep breath, to keep himself from continuing the yelling. In stead he spoke in a calmer, somewhat tired voice.

"You care about her, right? It's not like with that Shane girl, 'you treat me like shit and I treat you like dirt'? It's different with Rory, right? You wanna have some kind of real relationship with her, right?"

It took a moment for Jess to take in all of what his uncle was questioning him, but then he gave a small nod. Yes, he did care about her and yes, yes, yes.

Luke shook his head at him in frustration.

"Then you can't keep doing this, Jess! You're gonna be making yourself miserable too by screwing this up, and then we don't even have to talk about what you could do to Rory! But I am not gonna let that happen, do you understand me?"

When Jess didn't answer he added a question, a bit more calmly:

"You want this to work, right?"

"Yes, I want this to work!" Jess snapped back now.

"Then kid, you gotta do something about this! Saying you'll call and then never do it, leaving her hanging like that, it isn't right, you don't do that!"

"What the hell are you talking about? I mean, how do you even know…?" he started asking, but he got interrupted by Luke.

"Just shut up and listen to this" he said, gesturing towards the answering machine.

Jess, remembering Rory's words earlier that evening tried to stop him "But she said…"

Luke didn't care, he turned it on anyway.

"No, no, you need to hear this"

"_It's me. I just wanted to let you know that this is the last weekend I spend sitting around like an idiot hoping you'll call me, okay? I'm not going to be that girl. From now on_, _I want a plan. I mean, a real plan with a time and a place, and I'm tired of hearing 'Let's hook up later.' What does that mean anyway? What's later? How do I set my watch to later? Later doesn't cut it out anymore, got it? And yeah, you know, maybe I am spoiled. But guess what? I like being spoiled. I plan to go on being spoiled. And if that doesn't sound like something that you can or want to do, then fine. I'm sure you'll find another girl who doesn't mind sitting around cleaning her keyboard on a Friday night hoping you'll call, but it's not going to be me. Oh, yeah, this is a message for Jess"_

Silence. Then Luke spoke in a calmer but still somewhat triumphing voice:

"So, what do you have to say about that, huh?"

Jess didn't answer. He simply stood there, staring at the now quiet answering machine, taking in what it just had told him. Then he suddenly woke up from his trance and started walking towards the door.

"I have to go" he mumbled to his uncle on the way out.

Luke didn't protest.

He was getting closer to her house now, getting more nervous with every step he took. How was he going to fix this? Could he even? Or was it already too late? She had been so mad. It really had hurt him to hear her say those things, he could tell just by her voice that she had been extremely upset. God, he had screwed this up. He really had wanted this to work out. He actually had thought they were doing pretty good. He hadn't even thought about calling her that night, he hadn't even realized that was what a good boyfriend would've done. He wasn't a good boyfriend.

He sighed. He really wanted to be a good boyfriend. For her.

He was going to try. Try to make things better. Try to think more carefully about the way he was treating her. God, it was hard for him, he didn't have any experience with this; being with a girl whom you actually care about. He wasn't Dean, and he couldn't be Dean for her. But she knew that. And she had chosen him. Although, maybe she was regretting that now.

But no, he wasn't going to give up just yet. He wouldn't be Dean, but he could treat her better than he had done. If she just helped him and let him know when he was doing it wrong. He had to talk to her, get her to forgive him. Luke was right, he really did want this to work.

He was now standing in front of the Gilmore house. After only a moment of hesitation he knocked on the door. _Please let it not be Lorelai!_ he begged silently as he heard footsteps approaching the door.

His wishes came true. There she was, Rory. His girlfriend.

"Hey" she said, looking surprised to find him there so late.

"Hey" he said back, looking a bit uncomfortable, she thought.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

He just looked at her and she realized.

"Oh" she said in a small voice. "You heard it, right?"

"Yup" he confirmed.

"Okay, well…" she mumbled, looking embarrassed. "Then I'm sorry"

"For what?" he asked, unprepared of this. He was the one who was supposed to be apologizing.

"For yelling at you like crazy over practically nothing, for being a stupid little girl and getting all upset like that, for everything, well, you know. It didn't mean anything, I swear, I was just…" she rambled.

"… mad at me" he filled out her unfinished sentence.

"Well… yeah" she admitted. "Sorry"

"No, no, stop apologizing" he said.

"You're not mad at me?" she asked, sounding pretty close to tears.

"No" he assured her. "You… had your reasons"

"You're not coming here to break up with me?" she said, eyes gleaming a little now.

"What? Why would you think that?" he asked, confused.

"You heard my freak out message" she said as though that was an obvious explanation.

"So?" he asked.

"I didn't think you'd wanna deal with me after that, or any guy would for that matter" she mumbled, adding some bitterness at the last part.

"Hey…" he said softly. "I'm not breaking up with you, I wouldn't… Unless you…? I mean, I've been a pretty lousy boyfriend and I'm… I'm… I'm sorry" he said nervously and the last part was barely audible.

"What did you just say?" she asked with a small hint of a smile on her face.

"I'm sorry" he sighed. "I should have called"

"It's okay" she said.

"No, it's not okay. I don't want to do that again… I just… I'm not good at this. You know that. I'm not like… **him**" he spitted out that last word with disgust.

"I don't want you to be" she assured him quickly.

"Good. But I will get better, I promise"

"Good" she smiled. "And I will stop getting all crazy OC-girly on you. Promise"

"You get as OC-crazy at me as I deserve, okay?" he said playfully.

"Okay. You might regret that later though…"

"I said only if I deserve it" he said warningly.

"Well, you're a guy. Something's gonna come up, sooner or later…" she said playfully. "And then it comes 'Oh, Jess, how could you do this to me, you have destroyed my life, you were the only good part of my miserable being, the only thing keeping me from killing myself, now, world – goodbye! I here take my final breath and it is because of you! What did you do? WHAT DID YOU DO? Hello, you… you… you… you didn't put down the toilet seat after you!' " she said extremely dramatic.

Jess just smiled and shook his head.

"Come here, you" he said, pulling her into a deep kiss which she responded to immediately.

"You really cleaned your keyboard?" he asked when they broke apart.

"Well, yeah" she said, playing insulted at his tone.

"I didn't even know you could do that" he smirked.

"Hey, your fault, therefore you have lost all mocking permission" she stated.

"Okay, okay… I just… you really did that?"

"Stop" she said, hitting him on the arm. "Now you have to tell me how you really got that black eye"

"What? I mean, I've already told you that…" he tried.

"Oh no, that was the most obvious lie like ever. It wasn't even the slightest bit embarrassing. Now I was gonna let it go, but you are being mean about my keyboard-cleaning and as punishment you have to tell me the truth"

"No…" he pouted a little.

She giggled at that, but then got playfully serious. "Yes, you have to. Come on, what can be that embarrassing?" she asked.

"This" he muttered.

"Please" she whined. "Please, please, please…"

"Oh, alright. But the not telling anyone-promise still stands, okay?"

"Sure"

He hesitated.

"It was a swan" he muttered.

"What?" she asked, half-confused, half-amused.

"A swan, coming out of nowhere and attacking me"

"A swan?" she asked doubtfully.

"Yes, a swan!" he said impatiently.

"Okay, I hear you. A swan. Well, yeah, I have to admit, those things can be pretty scary sometimes. Especially if you ask Michel. Oh, you two should form a club! We-who-are-terrified-of-the-swans."

"Hey, I never said I was scared of them" he muttered.

"You have to be if you got beaked by one"

"See, beaked is a word, you should tell Luke that"

"What?"

"Never mind"

"You told Luke and not me?" she asked, offended.

"He made me"

"I tried"

"Well, you know now" he offered.

"Yeah, I suppose" she said, still playing mad. "I can't believe you let Luke know before me"

"It won´t happen again" he assured her.

"You mean, next time you get attacked by a swan you promise to tell me first?" she said doubtingly.

"Hey, that swan is vicious, it's not that unlikely to happen again"

"If you say so"

"I do"

"Okay then" she smiled.

**A/N **Now this is probably a one-shot, but let me know what you think and who knows, I may feel like continuing some time. Please leave a review!


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